I Wanna Be Where the People Are
by TailsDoll13
Summary: In all of his years in the merkingdom, he had never seen someone as strikingly beautiful as the human girl on the ship. (Part 3 of 52 Short Stories in 52 Weeks)


**3-A retelling of a fairytale**

 **I know this AU is usually told with Marinette as Ariel and Adrien as Eric, but really, Adrien fits the role of Ariel much better. Both of them have fathers that are overprotective of them and take drastic measures to shield them, but they break the rules so they can see how the rest of the world lives and what freedom is really like. So I decided to write this. If anyone wants me to make this a full fic, let me know!**

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Adrien gasped as he emerged above the water, the unfiltered oxygen a shock to his lungs. Merpeople were able to breath above the water and below it, but adjusting to the change was difficult. Nevertheless, he shook his head and dove back under, swimming towards the human ship that slid through the ocean's water. Curious bursts of light appeared at random intervals around the ship, making it easy to see even if Adrien's eyes weren't able to see through the murkiest of waters already

Behind him, he could hear two splashes. "Adrien, what are you-Come back! It's not safe!" a voice called. Adrien recognized it as Nathalie, the crab who served as an assistant to his father, and mentally cursed. There was no way he was going to let Nathalie ruin his chances to see actual human beings.

"Don't worry, it's all gonna be chill. Just let the guy live a little! Yo dude, wait up!"

There was another splash, and the familiar red-and-blue head of Adrien's best friend surfaced next to him. "Wow, real humans, huh? I wonder what they're doing."

"That's why we're going to their ship, Nino." Adrien ducked under the waves and swam as fast as his tail would let him, stopping only a few feet away from the ship. He surfaced again to see that the ship had a small hole carved out in the wall with a ledge underneath-a perfect place to see what was happening onboard. Similar ledges encircled the ship below the hole, and he grabbed the nearest one and began to climb. As he got closer, he could hear music and cheering ringing out, which only deepened his curiosity. Were the humans having a party, like mermaids did? Soon he was at the top right under the hole. He lifted himself up carefully and gazed at the sight before him.

Indeed, it _was_ a party. The ship was full of men and woman dressed in striped shirts and red scarves, laughing as though they didn't have a care in the world. Some of them were playing instruments that Adrien recognized, while the others were spinning each other around and clapping in time to music. He had never been this close to a human before, much less a whole group of them. The sight of them freely moving about on their legs, with no tail to render them useless on land, was mesmerizing to him.

It was so captivating, in fact, that Adrien almost didn't notice the strange creature in front of him. It walked on all fours and was covered in shaggy red-black hair. Its head appeared to be glued to the ground as it moved towards Adrien. Suppressing a squeal, he lurched back from the hole and pressed himself to the side of the ship, praying that it wouldn't hurt him. A panting sound filled the air, and he turned to see the creature staring at him with its mouth open and tongue hanging out. It lurched forward and licked his cheek, the strange texture of its tongue ticklish. Adrien couldn't suppress a small giggle at the sensation.

Someone whistled. "Tikki! C'mon, here girl!" The creature barked and bounded away from Adrien. He rubbed at his cheek and peered back through the hole in the ship to see where the creature had gone and who had called it-well, who had called her away. His eyes searched the crowd of humans until he finally saw the creature, who was currently giving a human the same face-licking treatment. The human laughed and turned her head, and Adrien's breath seemed to leave him.

The human was clad in a red shirt and black material that covered her legs. Though she was smaller in stature compared to the other humans, she was strongly built, if her thick muscular arms were anything to go by. Her hair was pulled away from her face in two pigtails, leaving her freckled cheeks exposed to the world. She opened her eyes to reveal the most brilliant blue Adrien had ever seen, even more vivid than any blue he had seen in the ocean.

"Tikki, what's gotten into you, ya silly dog?" she laughed. Her voice was high-pitched and full of joy, as though she had never once been sad in her life. Her eyes glittered with affection at the creature. "Who's a good girl? Who's a good girl? That's you, Tikki!"

It almost felt like time had stopped as Adrien gazed at the beautiful human. Although he didn't know her name and she didn't know that he existed, she had managed to capture his heart.

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 **Hello, and thank you for reading my first Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction! I go by TJ. I've been a fan of the show for a while now, and I've gotten several fic ideas for it that I'm still trying to wrangle out. I hope you liked this!**

 **If you want to read more of my work, you can check out the other fics in this series or the ones on my profile. This fic is also up on my AO3 at Gamzee_Makaraoni, with other fics!**

 **Please leave a favorite if you enjoyed, and if you want to see this become an actual fic leave a review! I don't think I'm done playing around with this AU yet, so there's definitely gonna be more to come.**

 **Once again, thanks for reading!**

 **Tumblr: gaydrienagreste**

 **Twitter: GamzeeMakaraoni**


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